In 1945, towards the end of WWII the Allies had begun their liberation of Europe and the Nazi’s were on the run.  German tank factories were designing bigger, more powerful tank destroyers to outgun the Allies and one of these designs was the E-100……….

The JagdPanzer E-100 was one of the two tier X German Tank Destroyers.

The E 100 was conceived as the basis for a self-propelled gun, an antiaircraft vehicle, and a tank destroyer. However, development was never started. Or so we thought……..

The basic design was ordered by the Waffenamt as a parallel development to the Porsche Maus  in June 1943. It was the heaviest of the Entwicklung (E) series of vehicles, meant to standardise as many components as possible. The proposed designs were the E-5, E-10, E-25, E-50, E-75 and finally the E-100.

In March 1944, the Adler company in Frankfurt submitted blueprint 021A38300 for a super-heavy tank called E-100, after the tank was proposed in April 1943 along with the other Entwicklung series vehicles. According to the blueprints, the tank would be armed with a both a 149 mm gun and a 75 mm gun. Two types of engines were proposed: one was a 700 hp Maybach HL230, with a transmission and turning mechanism borrowed from the Tiger II. The estimated top speed was 23 km/h. The second variant would have a new 1200 hp Maybach engine and a top speed estimated at 40 km/h. The design had removable side skirts and narrow transport tracks to make rail transport more viable. This design was very similar to the original ‘Tiger-Maus’ proposal, but had larger 900 mm diameter road wheels and a new spring based suspension rather than the original torsion bars. A new turret was designed; intended to be simpler and lighter than the Maus turret. Permission was given to produce the tank based on the potential use of the E-100 as a tank destroyer with either a 15 cm StuK L/63 or 17 cm StuK L/53 gun.

In July 1944 Hitler ordered the development of super heavy tanks to stop. Work on the E-100 continued at a very low priority, with only three Adler employees available to assemble the prototype.

The first prototype was never fully completed and was found by the 751st Field Artillery Battalion of the American forces in April 1945. The partially completed vehicle was taken by the British Army for evaluation and then scrapped in the 1950s. The photographs below are the only ones left to show evidence that the E-100 was ever put into production.

 

 

So the E-100 JagdPanzer was never built. It was in essence a design on a drawing board that never happened. It was what we now refer to as a Paper Panzer.

But what if there was a prototype that was produced? What if ? it was made operational and rushed to the streets of Berlin to push back the Allied offensive? Could just one tank do that?  No. Of course not!  Could just one tank destroy entire squadrons of Russian tanks on the streets of Berlin? I hardly think so. But one is compelled to ask…..

What if?  You heard the story about The Ghost of Berlin? Witness’s spoke of a huge metal beast of a tank that lay waste to enemy tank crew across the city, it’s massive amount of firepower able to slice through armour and for a short time be the last defender of Berlin…..

Kit: Trumpeter 1/35 E-100 Jagdpanzer.

Modifications: ET MG 42 Infa Red Targeting system.

Figure: 1/35 Warriors SS Panzer crew.

Paint: Personal mix of Tamiya acrylics.

Weathering:  AK Interactive Enamel washes and Newton and Winsor Oils.

A BIG Thank you to Kristof Pulinckx for inspiring me to be a better modeller and for sharing his incredible work that inspired this build.

I hope you have enjoyed the model, it was a blast for me and it has sparked a greater interest in armour for me. So I think there will be more armour builds around here in the future!

Take care and Happy Modelling!

Darren.